How to handle your hospital's VBAC policy

I found this rather encouraging article at Mothering.com with suggestions on approaching your hospital about having a VBAC if their policy bans or discourages them. Here's an excerpt:

"It is illegal for a doctor or hospital to perform invasive surgery on you against your will. However, until more consumers begin challenging VBAC bans and demanding the right to labor and the right to attempt vaginal delivery, many of these draconian policies will remain in place. Research the studies available on both VBACs and repeat cesarean sections and consider your personal circumstances to determine which birth choice is most appropriate for you."

The article continues to suggest who you might contact and meet with to discuss the research and your wishes. There is also a sample letter.

VBAC stands for vaginal birth after cesarean, and you can read more about VBACs here and here.

I did a little research on the cesarean and VBAC rates of our local Logan Regional Hospital, and actually found some data! According to 2006 numbers, Utah's cesarean rate is only 9.9% overall. The rate of a first time cesarean at Logan Regional Hospital was 7.7%, and the VBAC rate at Logan Regional was 22.1% (which meant that 77.9% of previous cesareans had repeat cesareans). The Health Department webpage the describes these numbers plainly states that repeat cesareans have higher risks than vaginal births, but also recommends that a hospital should not offer VBACs if the facility is not capable of doing emergency cesareans in case the uterus ruptures. It's nice to know what the administration* thinks, that way you can talk to them in their language.

~s~

*edited to change "authorities" to "administration." I knew I didn't quite have the right word! We are our own authorities, right?!

Nursing Is Normal

Preaching to the choir, eh? Well this terrific lady, Kathy O'Brien, decided to put together a photo essay of nursing in public. It begins with the words:

"We believe the more often something is seen, the more accepted it becomes."

Here's the link, but be advised, clicking on it will download the PowerPoint presentation to your computer.

I also found this via Mothering.

~s~

Vaccines linked to diabetes

I just read on Mothering's website about a study that links vaccines to diabetes. Apparently, after a vaccine for tuberculosis was discontinued in Japan, type 2 diabetes in children fell by 50%. The study discusses particular differences between Japanese people and Caucasians, so it's not "across the board" in its scope, but interesting nonetheless.

~s~

CNM who does homebirths

I found this news story interesting because it's not just another superficial, short piece about homebirth (OK, it's a little superficial), but it's about a Certified Nurse Midwife who not only chose to leave the hospital environment to do homebirths, but that she's allowed to. Not many states allow CNMs to attend homebirths. Read about Angelina Nixon here.

We're International!

I just checked our stats (because I'm a math geek and think it's fascinating), and in the last 24 hours, we've had visitors from Mississippi, Wales, the Philippines and Greece! That's a long ways off from our little (very cold this morning) corner of northern Utah. Drop a line, leave a comment, wherever you're from. I'm new at this blogging thing; our community is still growing. Tell us what you think, whether you find what you're looking for or not!

And, welcome.

:)
~s~

Babywearing School in Logan

Beate, of Children's Needs, just informed us that there will be a Babywearing School in Logan, very soon. It will be Wednesday, October 1 to Sunday, October 5, at the Comfort Inn. You can download the registration form for cost and other details, and check out the faq. The instructors are flying in from Germany, and it appears they will be going over a lot of information. These classes are intended to certify you to teach babywearing to others.

I googled the website for the instructors in Germany, and had google automatically translate the pages for me. Have you ever done that? It's not perfect, but you get the gist of it. I thought it was pretty neat. Try it!

~s~

psa from the Australian Breastfeeding Association

Have you seen this? How did I miss it!? I love it.



For more information about the ABA, visit their site.
I found this video here.

~s~

Brewers Diet For Pregnancy

There is some good, sound information here for nutrition in pregnancy. The information on salt and protein are particularly valuable. This site is worth taking the time to read through.

http://home.mindspring.com/~djsnjones/

J

Baby Food In Logan

Wow! What a great new company started by our very own Sadie Enright and her little Grace! Talk about the nutritional advantages to babies versus the ultra-processed stuff from the grocery store! You know where this comes from, it's fresh, and it's delicious nutrition!

Way to go Sadie and Grace!

http://firstfoodsnatural.blogspot.com/

What's New?

PushNews from The Big Push for Midwives Campaign
CONTACT: Steff Hedenkamp, (816) 506-4630, steff@...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, September 1, 2008
Number Two With a Bullet
Critical Women's Health Issues Neglected as Physician Group Yet Again Setsits Sites on Midwives

WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 1, 2008)-In the newest phase of its ongoingeffort to deny women the right to choose their maternity careproviders andbirth settings, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists(ACOG) has announced that eliminating access to midwives who specialize inout-of-hospital birth is now the second most important issue on its statelegislative agenda. This move puts restricting access to trained midwivesahead of such critical issues as contraceptive equity, ensuring access toemergency contraception, and the prevention and treatment of perinatalHIV/AIDS."ACOG claims to be an advocate of women's health and choice, but when itcomes to the right to choose to deliver your baby in the privacy ofyour ownhome with a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) who is specificallytrainedto provide the safest care possible, ACOG's paternalistic colors bleedthrough," said Susan M. Jenkins, Legal Counsel for the Big Push forMidwivesCampaign. "It is astonishing that an organization that purports to be achampion of women's healthcare would put a petty turf battle that affectsless than one percent of the nation's childbearing women ahead of pressingissues that have an impact on nearly every woman in this country. Ifthis isnot dereliction of duty, I can't imagine what is."In recent years, ACOG has led a well-financed campaign to fightlegislativereforms that would license and regulate CPMs and has now teamed upwith theAmerican Medical Association (AMA) to promote legislation that wouldpreventfamilies from choosing to give birth at home. Despite these joint efforts,the groups have not been successful in defeating the groundswell ofgrassroots activism in support of full access to a comprehensive range ofmaternity care options that meet the needs of all families."Wisconsin is a good example of what ACOG and the AMA are up against,"saidJane Crawford Peterson, CPM, Advocacy Trainer for The Big Push. "Ourbipartisan grassroots coalition of everyday people from across the statemanaged to defeat the most powerful and well-financed special interestgroups in Wisconsin, all on an expenses-only budget of $3000 during alegislative session in which $47 million was spent on lobbying. Whenyou tryto deny women the fundamental and very personal right to choose where andhow to give birth, they will get organized and they will let their electedofficials know that restrictions on those rights cannot stand."Noting these successes, ACOG has recently launched its own grassrootsorganizing effort, calling on member physicians to recruit theirpatients toparticipate in its "Who Will Deliver My Baby?" medical liability reformcampaign."ACOG itself admits that we're facing a critical shortage of maternitycareproviders," said Steff Hedenkamp, Communications Coordinator for the BigPush. "They certainly realize that medical liability reform is nothingmorethan a band aid and that increasing access to midwives and birthsettings iscritical to fixing our maternity care system and ensuring that rural,low-income and uninsured women don't fall through the cracks. Midwivesrepresent an essential growth segment of the U.S. pool of maternity careproviders, but instead of putting the healthcare needs of women first,ACOGwould rather devote its considerable lobbying budget to a last-ditchattemptto protect its own bottom line. This is not a happy Labor Day for ournation's mothers and babies."The Big Push for Midwives ( <http://www.thebigpushformidwives.org/>http://www.TheBigPushforMidwives.org) is a nationally coordinated campaignorganized to advocate for regulation and licensure of CertifiedProfessionalMidwives (CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and PuertoRico,and to push back against the attempts of the American Medical Associationand the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to denyAmericanfamilies access to safe and legal midwifery care. The campaign plays acritical role in building a new model of U.S. maternity care deliveryat thelocal and regional levels, at the heart of which is the Midwives Model ofCare, based on the fact that pregnancy and birth are normal lifeprocesses.Media inquiries: Steff Hedenkamp (816) 506-4630,<mailto:steff@...> steff@... #####The Big Push for Midwives Campaign is fiscally sponsored by SustainableMarkets Foundation, a not-for-profit organization recognized as tax-exemptunder Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3). The mission of the Big Pushfor Midwives is to build winning, state-level advocacy campaigns towardssuccessful regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives(CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.Visit the Big Push for Midwives Campaign on the Web at<http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=227950734&u=2397811> www.TheBigPushforMidwives.org.Sustainable Markets Foundation 80 Broad Street, Suite 1600 NewYork,NY 10004-2248 The Big Push for Midwives Campaign 2300 M Street, N.W., Suite 800 Washington, D.C. 20037-1434

Cloth Diapering 101

We have a guest post today from Shah'ada about cloth diapering.

*****

My name is Shah'ada and I am a cloth diapering fool!! No really, I love to cloth diaper in the biggest way ever. It has made an almost necessary part of parenting fun (yes, I could EC, and I plan on reading more with our next child, but for now cloth diapering is what I'm all about)!!! I started out cloth diapering when I read about all the horrible toxins in disposables. I then thought about the environmental effects disposables had . . . did you know one cup of crude oil goes into making ONE disposable? Yes, cloth uses water for washing, but water is renewable. And oh my heck. Have you SEEN the cuteness that can be cloth?!

One of my very close friends (and a fellow cloth diapering advocate), Keli, has written a few detailed blog posts about cloth diapers. She has broken it down into 2 sections. She has awesome pictures and great descriptions and I could never replicate anywhere near as well.

Fitteds, pockets, all-in-ones, all-in-twos

Prefolds, flats, and covers


The only thing Keli's blog does not cover is washing, storing, etc. I have 2 children in cloth at the moment and wash daily. If you only have one in cloth, you'd only have to wash every other to every third day. I set my washer to a super large load. I do a quick pre-rinse with cold water. I then put the setting on hot/cold, fill the washer while adding 2 circles of Dawn non ultra dish soap OR 1/2 scoop of County Save powder OR 1/2 scoop of Bio Kleen powder OR regular liquid Tide to line 1. I have had success with all of these in the hard water us Utahns have been blessed with ;) I make sure to run 2 rinses and then either line dry or dry in the dryer. Getting a good wash routine usually takes a few wash cycles because every child and every washing machine is different. You want to stay away from free and clear detergents and well as anything with soap. Soap will cause build up and build up equals stinkies, repelling, less absorbency, and did I mention stinkies?

For storing, I use hanging wet bags. They are made of PUL (Keli has an explanation on her blog I believe), and thus keep in the wetness. I just hang them on the door to our bathroom/laundry room. I store all clean diapers in a laundry basket and hanging closet organizer. Yes, staring at our diapers is a past time of mine ;)

I personally use prefolds, flats, and fitteds with wool covers. I prefer natural fibers (or as close to natural as possible ;) ) on my children's bottoms. I find these diapers/covers also wash up the easiest. And they are also the cutest *blush* If you are vegan/opposed to using wool, you can use fleece as a great breathable alternative to wool.

I do (free) cloth diaper consultation by email, phone, or in person if you are in the Cache Valley area. Email is shahadaghan at gmail dot com. Please email me for any information :) If you would just like me to expound on this limited information, I would gladly do that as well :) I really do love to "talk cloth" and would love to help you find an alternative to toxins and landfill filling!!

*****

Thanks Shah'ada! So, what's your cloth philosophy?

~S~